I'm shipping my '08 GW to Germany. Rode it to LA a few weeks back where it will be put in a container and shipped to Heidelberg. The reason for doing this is that renting in Europe is quite expensive and I and my pillion wanted to take a few trips over a couple of years to explore the Alps, Italy, the Balkans etc. and not be charged $200/day for a rental while we enjoy staying in one place for a few days. I'm wondering if other members have experience doing this and what issues they ran up against. Honda has not been helpful so far. I spent some phone time trying to find out how to get a GPS nav card for Europe without success, either from Honda or Garmin. Honda wasn't even helpful getting me a list of dealers in Europe. Strange for a company with worldwide distribution.

Should not be a problem getting the Garmin maps from the Garmin website. I have an older C320, that is fed with an SD card, and I was able to get one to suit in UK. I think Garmin has decided to not support the model any more, so they are quite strong on discontinuing support on older models. Be aware!

Len in Kapunda

The world is not going to finish today, as it is already tomorrow in Australia and New Zealand, and other islands of foreign nations such as Guam and Samoa.

redial wrote:Should not be a problem getting the Garmin maps from the Garmin website. I have an older C320, that is fed with an SD card, and I was able to get one to suit in UK. I think Garmin has decided to not support the model any more, so they are quite strong on discontinuing support on older models. Be aware!

Thanks. I'll try Garmin's website, but I don't even know the model designation of the unit installed. It's possibly the worst GPS ever made, but it's better than nothing

You might also try Honda of Europe for assistance in locating dealers. I do know of one in London as my wife rented a Aero 750 there. We were in UK and Europe for three straight weeks and were riding almost every day so renting made more sense than shipping the bikes over.

I am assuming you have a storage facility set up to keep your bike when it is in Europe.

phandrews wrote:I spent some phone time trying to find out how to get a GPS nav card for Europe without success, either from Honda or Garmin. Honda wasn't even helpful getting me a list of dealers in Europe. Strange for a company with worldwide distribution.

With an 08 GL1800 you should have a CF Navi card. If you are using the original Firmware, then you may be pretty much out of luck, as finding a five year old NAVI card of Europe could be a problem. Probably your best bet in this scenario would be to find a member on this forum from Europe who would be willing to loan you their old card. If you have upgraded to the Firmware that will run NT mapping, you now have possibilities. European riders have reported that map images of Europe will work with the upgrade firmware, anywhere from 4.5 up, I believe. All of Europe however will not fit on a CF card, so you would have to make a seperate CF card for probably half of it and another for the other half. This would require having the software on your computer to make the map images you want, because none of the GPS sites have split Europe up to fit a 2GB card. I checked. Garmins Open Street Map would allow you to make maps of each country, but is limited in how many maps you can make into an image, so would probably require as many as 10 CF cards. Finally, to do all this, you would need a CF card reader/writer, and a couple of blank 2GB CF cards. Other than that, nothing to it......

I would forget about Honda and maps on cards as far as GPS is concerned. If I were you I would simply buy a cheap Garmin with free map updates for about 90 quid and have it sent to your B&B, when you get there plug it in and update it with full Europe maps. all you will need is a 4GB card for it. next time you come over, plug it in again if you want to for available update if any. SORTED. As Redial said, you will not get Europe maps for older Garmins because Garmin stopped supporting some older ones altogether. I have always used a Garmin, no matter what on board satnav I have even in the cars. I just pop a sandwich bag over it before I attach it to the mount in the rain. I drill the screen and put a small self tapper screw through into the mount though. This has served me well for many years on GoldWings and in my cars, although the cars have on board sat nav in the ICE units, I cannot be bothered with all the hassle and messing about with voice commands butting in as well as the intercom. I have never had a problem with a Garmin due to getting wet.

If you are travelling Europe you do not want to be messing with maps and cards, you want something you can turn on and be able to rely upon.The extra you would spend on the Garmin compared to messing with maps is a no brainer if you are coming from the USA.

The only issues I have read about by Wingers doing what you are doing, was when they wanted to sell their Goldwings instead of shipping them back to the USA.

I may be wrong but from what I understand Honda want something like 500 quid for satnav mapping.

I forgot to mention that I have full Europe maps (45 Countries) on a single memory card in both Garmins the Mrs and I use that have lifetime Europe map updates. I cannot remember the size card the Garmins asked for when I installed Europe maps though, they may be 8gb or even 16GB I will check, I made a copy of the memory cards in case one went **** up and it takes a looooooong time for the Garmin to download all of Europe. If you go the Garmin route and need help getting a Garmin loaded with latest Europe maps and firmware and sent to the first place you are staying, you know where I am.

Big Blue UK wrote:I forgot to mention that I have full Europe maps (45 Countries) on a single memory card in both Garmins the Mrs and I use that have lifetime Europe map updates. I cannot remember the size card the Garmins asked for when I installed Europe maps though, they may be 8gb or even 16GB I will check, I made a copy of the memory cards in case one went **** up and it takes a looooooong time for the Garmin to download all of Europe. If you go the Garmin route and need help getting a Garmin loaded with latest Europe maps and firmware and sent to the first place you are staying, you know where I am.

Thanks for the offer. I think I'll see if I can't just buy the unit here with Euro maps. But since I know where I'll be staying it would be no problem to have it sent there also. I'm curious about how you mount the unit to your bike. I'm not sure the windshield mount would be a good idea...

A piece of fishing line as a security line, around the mount, and a separate one for the unit. There are usually some small holes that can be utilised to tie it on. If not, you could drill a small hole and insert an eye screw. An eye screw is a regular thread with a complete loop where the screw head would be. You could let your mind enhance this idea, so that your unit does not even look like being smashed on the road.

One of the most enjoyable trips in Europe we had, with "avoid highways" set on the Garmin was into the Czech Republic. We were travelling from Dresden in Germany to Prague, and went through some very interesting country and villages. We could see the highway with traffic zooming along on the other side of the big river, while we were touring and enjoying the scenery and sights. Like most places, the highways/interstates/toll roads are fine if you are in a hurry, but I usually prefer the scenic route if it is available. Unfortunately, in Oz, we dont get to have a difference too often, it is all "scenic route".

Len in Kapunda

The world is not going to finish today, as it is already tomorrow in Australia and New Zealand, and other islands of foreign nations such as Guam and Samoa.

A piece of fishing line as a security line, around the mount, and a separate one for the unit.

Good idea. I'll pack some appropriate kit for this. I'll be getting down your way next month, landing in Melbourne and pressing on to Tasmania. No motorcycling on this trip unfortunately. Haven't been to Oz for a few years, so looking forward to it.

The suction mount is guaranteed to keep dropping off, because of the screens shape and vibration/bumps. I tried the safety line at first, soon dropped off as I was expecting, sod that MO. On all my GoldWings since I used a satnav I drilled a small hole in the screen and put a self tapping screw through into the mount TADAH, so the Garmin was just touching the dash, and never drops off. Permanently fixed but what good is the mount off the screen, I do not go anywhere without the Garmin.Screen mount compared to handlebar mount is my preferred choice, tried it on a handlebar mount, did not like the position.